A national for-profit hospice care company that is partially owned by a San Francisco private equity firm has allegedly bilked Medicare of millions of dollars, according to a legal complaint filed this week by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In court documents, the U.S. government alleges that since at least 2007, AseraCare Hospice of Texas has fraudulently certified patients as terminally ill to illegally collect Medicare payments.

"AseraCare, through its reckless business practices, admitted and retained individuals who were not eligible to receive Medicare hospice benefits, because it was financially lucrative - and did so even after AseraCare's auditor alerted AseraCare to troubling problems," court documents state.

Hospice care provides palliative care - ranging from pain relief to psychological and spiritual services - to patients who have less than six months to live. About $13 billion in Medicare funding is spent on hospice care each year, and the industry annually serves 1.54 million Americans and more than 91,000 Californians.

AseraCare is a subsidiary of a Golden Living, a "post-acute" health care company that provides services ranging from nursing homes to home health care. Through a series of legal entities, 1 percent of Golden Living is owned by the San Francisco private equity firm Fillmore Capital Partners, and 99 percent is owned by the Washington State Investment Board, whose investments are managed entirely by Fillmore.

The government's current case stems from a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by a former AseraCare Hospice executive director and a AseraCare nurse in Alabama, and attorneys in that case say that the allegedly fraudulent practices occur throughout the organization.

Golden Living has three administrative offices in California: in Fresno, Stockton and Concord.

Golden Living denies all allegations of Medicare fraud.

"We believe that the allegations are without merit or are not violations of the law, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against all claims," Blair Jackson, Golden Living's vice president of communications, said in a statement.